The schedule has me doing an 8mile quick(ish) and and 9mile steady. In typical fashion I loosely followed this, I managed a 7 mile lunchtime run on weds at a fast pace. The garmin tracked the run at 8min mile av, however, that did incorporate a 1mile downhill which had I did in 7:40, clearly faster than normal and I could expect on a flat! No issues with the run, short and sweet which is the way I like it

Thurs morn was listed as a 9miler which I decided to do as a morn run towards work. Having pre-arranged giving my bag to my dad so the run was from home-ox circus. The run checked in at 11 miles and before starting for some reason I always thought it was going to be less, even though I have already run it a number of time. My run time was good, was deliberately trying to slow my pace down to race pace but was still up on that. Think I averaged 8:36 (race pace is looking to be sub 9). Calves felt a little tight at the end and on the whole my body fealt a bit tired but all good miles and it wasn’t a race!

Think on Saturdays long run I’m going to look at the heart rate function of my watch and set it to force me to run based on that as it may slow me down a bit, will spend some time looking at my garmin data to work out a race pace heart rate. Need to invest some time pacing myself and ensuring I don’t end up overdoing the first half.

As I just said, Saturday marks an 18miler, shifted from the normal Sunday run this is because for some reason I decided to enter the ‘Newham 10k’. It turns out this is completely unhelpful for my schedule but it’s local and I get to see and run round the 2012 Olympic Park which should be cool. Don’t intend on coming close to my pb on that as it is really going to be a recovery run following Saturdays long slow run.

Rest day tomorrow, wooo

N

I’ll be the first to admit my last few weeks of training, whilst banking plenty of miles, have not been to close to the schedule during the week. However, today’s run was spot on the requirement: 14*200meter intervals with 100meter recovery. Looking at the quick conversion maths I had to do to
put this in my Garmin I was slightly out in meaning I actually did 14*250meters and 115meter recoveries.

Today was the first time I’ve done an interval sesh like that off of the treadmill and it was tough! During the faster sections my heart rate went through the roof – I’m sure I saw 190+ at one stage! At the end of my road there is a straight path which is about 400meters long so I took myself over there and went back and forth like a yo-yo! I’m sure the dog walkers thought I was a loony! Obviously as it’s one path for over 3M there isn’t much I can report on regarding scenery, however, the sun was out but it’s still cold!

I have an 8 and a 9er tom/thurs so will be incorporating that into my journey into work somehow.

Till then.

N

Once again I opted for the treadmill, I’m sure this is counter productive but find this is the only way to push myself. I’m glad I did it before work as had planned for 2 sessions today the sprints and then a niketown after work (the first of the season) but due to work constraints and the launching of a rather last minute tool I had to skip this evening.

I’m starting to feel a lot more comfortable with my base rate at 12km/h which is reassuring as a few weeks ago I wasn’t really feeling it. I sprint intervaled  today 400me/200recovevy pushing top speed around the 17.4km/h. Twas tough – as usual, but the schedule required 9 intervals which I did. Did some stretches then headed to work (early – fool!).

As an aside on Sunday I listened to the latest marathon talk podcast and there was an interesting bit in there that talked about weight and running, can’t remember the precise numbers but something like for every pound you lose you can expect to lose 2seconds off your mile time. I found that interesting, whilst I wouldn’t classify myself as overweight I certainly have a bit of excess fat which if I cut out sweets and chips I’m sure I could lose, hence I’m watching what I eat for a little bit to see if it helps…also whilst talking about marathon talk, I got a mention in the last one Finally I’m famous! hehe

Till tomorrows long run

N

According to the diary today was supposed to be a 4M fartlek session, opting for a pre-work run and not being able to find a buddy I decided to take the session in the gym instead.

I set myself a short sprint interval session averaging 250me fast and 200me or so recovery. The recovery pace was set at 12km/h. I intervaled upto a top speed of around 18km/h and fell no less than 16km/h. It was a very fast 6.6km – I think I finished 5km in under 22mins. Tough but ok just need to try it outside!

Tomorrow is a mixup to the schedule, diary has it at 6M in 57 mins, I am going to run the same route as last week and put my watch virtual partner on the faster speed.

As I write this I know my body isn’t at 100%, I have been sniffling and sneezing for days but I am still perfecty able to train so hopefully tomorrow will be no difference!

Till then…

Getting back into the schedule was of utmost importance to me, I figured I could miss a week and catchup quite easily especially as the mileage was below what my body was capable of. with that in mind, an early drive to the tube saw me in the gym by 8 and onto the dreadmills.

The schedule has me doing:
1M jog
5* 800me fast (4min) w 200me recovery
1M jog warm down

I followed this mileage schedule although the speed may have been faster than requested – that said the session felt considerably more difficult than the W2 sessions, my quads where a bit tight which I can only assume is a consequence of the skiing and lack of running for a week!

Regardless of the pains experienced I completed the session as hoped. As an aside it appears that buffets in hotels are not good for weight loss put it this way, I thought that being on my skis for several hours a day would help with weight stability. Judging from the scales today am this appears to be far from the truth!

Till weds longer run…

N

In a complete shake up to my recently constructed running schedule the snow started falling putting an end to my D2 5m Slow Run. To compensate this I changed the schedule for D3 to bring me a bit more upto speed (to be read as – I ignored the D3 schedule too and came up with my own plan….Looking forward in the schedule on week 3 I noticed an “Interval Session” so decided to give that a go during my lunch break.

Once again – as before, I think I must have done my maths wrong and done something different to what RW were suggesting because if it wasn’t they are really pushing things. Anyway, i did the following

1.6km (~1Mile) Jog @ 10.9km/h
1.6km Fast @ 14-15km/h with 400m recovery (10.9km/h)
1.6km Jog @ 10.9km/h

I think i must have done some parts of it wrong as I ended up running 10kms. Did it in about 48mins but that was a hard session and not something I could do on the streets, well not yet anyway!

Next run most likely tomorrow as am shifting Saturdays easy run over as am away at the weekend, most likely on the dreadmill again as its a little slippy outside!

First interval training session of the new year – a 5km job using the ok go playlist.

What is interval training

‘Interval’ training is broadly defined as repetitions of high-speed/intensity work followed by periods (the periods that are the actual intervals) of rest or low activity.

The Ok Go soundtrack walk through the intervals but allow you to set your running pace to whatever you want. Today was one of my fastest interval sets. A base speed of 12k/h was set but fluctuated between that and 13km/h with interval jumps up to 18km.

I’m definitely improving on these and its actually very easy to compare the differences using my nike+. Ill get this info out at some point, as its interesting (for me anyway!).